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Kentucky lands highly rated quarterback recruit Barker

HEBRON, KY. — The University of Kentucky football team landed a major in-state recruiting victory on Friday when Conner High School junior quarterback Drew Barker announced he will play for the Wildcats.

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Kentucky lands highly rated quarterback recruit Barker

Steve Jones, USA TODAY Sports
Published 4:19 p.m. ET May 10, 2013

First-year Kentucky football coach Mark Stoops, shown here at his introductory news conference in December, has had quick success on the recruiting trail for the Wildcats.(Photo: Mark Zerof, USA TODAY Sports)

HEBRON, KY. — The University of Kentucky football team landed a major in-state recruiting victory on Friday when Conner High School junior quarterback Drew Barker announced he will play for the Wildcats.

Barker, a top candidate for Kentucky Mr. Football honors and the nation's No. 102 junior, according to Scout.com, declared his commitment during a gathering at his school, choosing the Cats over South Carolina and Tennessee.

Landing Barker is a signature recruiting accomplishment for first-year coach Mark Stoops, whose staff made him the Cats' No. 1 priority on offense in the 2014 class after taking over for Joker Phillips. Phillips' staff barely recruited Barker, and his interest in UK just six months ago was basically non-existent.

Furthermore, South Carolina, which had also made him a top priority, was a perceived front-runner for months and months.

Since the hiring of Stoops and offensive coordinator Neal Brown, who is installing Texas Tech's Air Raid offense, Barker has been a major UK target, receiving 115 letters from the Wildcats in a single day in March and 100 more in a single day last month. Barker, who comes from a family of UK fans, made multiple visits to Lexington this winter and spring for basketball games and football practices.

"He's a great person," Conner coach Dave Trosper said. "He's got great grades. He's got all the things, all the tangibles to be a superstar."

Conner High (Ky.) quarterback Drew Barker posted a photo of the 115 handwritten recruiting letters sent to him by Kentucky on Instagram earlier this year.(Photo: @db_714, Instagram)

Barker, who plans to play in next year's U.S. Army All-American Bowl, is ranked as the nation's No. 153 junior by Rivals.com and the No. 6 pro-style quarterback.

Barker's father, Terry, said his son plans to graduate high school in December and enroll in college in January, allowing him to participate in spring practice in 2014 and get acclimated to the next level. Unless one of UK's current quarterbacks emerges as a standout starter this coming season, it would not be a major surprise if Barker was in the mix for playing time in 2014.

He'd be the highest-ranked high school player, according to Rivals, to sign with UK since safety Glenn Faulkner (No. 128) in 2011.

He's UK's sixth 2014 commitment, including the third from a four-star prospect and the first from a player outside of Ohio. Counting 2013 signees, UK has six four-star commitments since Stoops has been hired in December -- three more than Phillips signed in the 2010, '11 and '12 classes combined.

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